American presidents seem to age before our eyes. But the common belief that high-office stress grays our leaders faster than (1) ______ may be a myth, new research finds. In fact, the majority of American presidents have lived longer than (2) ______ men of their times.
That's not to say that chronic stress has no effect on a person's lifespan, but so does high social standing. The findings (3) ______ to a body of research linking high status to better health: for instance, Oscar winners live longer than those who were only (4) ______; and the longevity (长寿) effect is also seen in Nobel Prize winners.
The new study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, (5) ______ the dates of birth, inauguration and death of all 34 past presidents who died of natural (6) ______. The average lifespan for these men should have been 68 years, if they'd aged twice as fast during their years in (7) ______ as the popular wisdom suggests they do.
Instead, the study found, these presidents lived an average 73 years. And indeed, 23 of the 34 presidents who died of natural causes lived longer than (8) ______, compared with other men their age during their lifetimes.
So why do people at the top of the (9) ______ fare better than those below? Access to wealth, education and the best health care of their times would seem to be obvious factors although medical attention seems to have (10) ______ killed President Garfield, who died from a fatal infection introduced by his doctors’ unsterile (未消过毒的) treatment techniques after he was shot by an assassin.
| A) analyzed B) typical C) persistently D) expected E) force F) add G) causes H) usual I) formulated J) office K) devote L) hierarchy M) nominated N) actually O) effects |
Millions of Americans are entering their 60s and are more concerned than ever about retirement. They know they need to save, but how much? And what exactly are they saving for-to spend more time (1) _______ the grandkids, go traveling, or start another career? It turns out that husbands and wives may have (2) _______ different ideas about the subject.
The deepest divide is in the way spouses envisage their lifestyle in their later years. Fidelity Investments Inc. found 41 percent of the 500 couples it surveyed (3) _______ on whether both or at least one spouse will work in retirement. Wives are generally right regarding their husbands' retirement age, but men (4) _______ the age their wives will be when they stop working. And husbands are slightly more (5) _______ about their standard of living than wives are.
Busy juggling（穷于应付） careers and families, more couples don't take the time to sit down, (6) _______ or together, and think about what they would like to do 5, 10 or 20 years from now. They (7) _______ they are on the same page, but the (8) _______ is they have avoided even talking about it.
If you are self-employed or in a job that doesn't have a standard retirement age, you may be more apt to delay thinking about these issues. It is often a (9) _______ retirement date that provides the catalyst (催化剂) to start planning. Getting laid off or accepting an early-retirement (10) _______ can force your hand. But don't wait until you get a severance (遣散费) check to begin planning.
| A) assume B) confidential C) disagree D) formula E) forthcoming F) illustrating G) mysteriously H) observe I) optimistic J) package K) radically L) reality M) separately N) spoiling O) underestimate |
When we think of green buildings, we tend to think of new ones – the kind of high-tech, solar-paneled masterpieces that make the covers of architecture magazines. But the U.S. has more than 100 million existing homes, and it would be (1) _______ wasteful to tear them all down and (2) _______ them with greener versions. An enormous amount of energy and resources went into the construction of those houses. And it would take an average of 65 years for the (3) _______ carbon emissions from a new energy-efficient home to make up for the resources lost by destroying an old one. So in the broadest (4) _______, the greenest home is the one that has already been built. But at the same time, nearly half of U. S. carbon emissions come from heating, cooling and (5) _______ our homes, offices and other buildings. "You can't deal with climate change without dealing with existing buildings," says Richard Moe, the president of the National Trust.
With some (6) _______, the oldest homes tend to be the least energy-efficient. Houses built before 1939 use about 50% more energy per square foot than those built after 2000, mainly due to the tiny cracks and gaps that (7) _______ over time and let in more outside air.
Fortunately, there are a (8) _______ number of relatively simple changes that can green older homes, from (9) _______ ones like Lincoln's Cottage to your own postwar home. And efficiency upgrades (升级) can save more than just the earth; they can help (10) _______ property owners from rising power costs.
| A) accommodations B) clumsy C) doubtfully D) exceptions E) expand F) historic G) incredibly H) powering I) protect J) reduced K) replace L) sense M) shifted N) supplying O) vast |
Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American presidents for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession.
“Energy independence” and its rhetorical (修辞的) companion “energy security” are, however, slippery concepts that are rarely thought through. What is it we want independence from, exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent fromimported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle (涓涓细流) of biofuel (生物燃料) available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the narne of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices. At the same time, we derive massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.
Kodak’s decision to file for bankruptcy（破产）protection is a sad, though not unexpected, turning point for a leading American corporation that pioneered consumer photography and dominated the film market for decades, but ultimately failed to adapt to the digital revolution.
Although many attribute Kodak’s downfall to “complacency(自满) ,” that explanation doesn’t acknow-ledge the lengths to which the company went to reinvent itself. Decades ago, Kodak anticipated that digital photography would overtake film — and in fact, Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975 — but in a fateful decision, the company chose to shelf its new discovery to focus on its traditional film business.
It wasn’t that Kodak was blind to the future, said Rebecca Henderson, a professor at Harvard Business School, but rather that it failed to execute on a strategy to confront it. By the time the company realized its mistake, it was too late.
Kodak is an example of a firm that was very much aware that they had to adapt, and spent a lot of money trying to do so, but ultimately failed. Large companies have a difficult time switching into new markets because there is a temptation to put existing assets into the new businesses.
Although Kodak anticipated the inevitable rise of digital photography, its corporate（企业的） culture was too rooted in the successes of the past for it to make the clean break necessary to fully embrace the future. They were a company stuck in time. Their history was so important to them. Now their history has become a liability.
Kodak’s downfall over the last several decades was dramatic. In 1976, the company commanded 90% of the market for photographic film and 85% of the market for cameras. But the 1980s brought new competition from Japanese film company Fuji Photo, which undermined Kodak by offering lower prices for film and photo supplies. Kodak’s decision not to pursue the role of official film for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was a major miscalculation. The bid went instead to Fuji, which exploited its sponsorship to win a permanent foothold in the marketplace.